Mechanism for operating road-crossing gates



(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1. J. H. CLAYTON.

MEGHANISM FUR OPERATING ROAD GROSSING GATES. No. 326,275. Patented Sept.15,1885.v

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, J'. H. CLAYTON. l MEOHANISM FOR OPERATING ROAD CROSSING GATES.

No. 326,275. I Patent-d Sept. 15,l 1885-.

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(No Model.)

' J. H. CLAYTON.

MEGHANISM FOR OPERATING ROAD CROSSING GATES. No. 326,275. Patented Sept.15, 1885. m Edy-8, I

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Nrrnn STATES JOHN HORROOKS CLAYTON, OF ST. JOHNSBURY, VERMONT.

IVIECHANISM FOR OPERATING ROAD-CROSSING GATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 326,275, datedSeptember 15, 1885.

Application filed December 19, 1884. (Xo model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, JOHN HoRRocxs CLAY- TON, of St. J ohnsbury, in thecounty of Caledonia, of the State of Vermont, have invented a new anduseful Improvement in Mechanism for Operating Road-Crossing Gates andRailway-Signals; and I do hereby declare the same to be described in thefollowing specification, and represented in the accompanying drawings,of which- Figure l is a top view, Figs. 2 and 3 opposite sideelevations, Fig. 4 a longitudinal section, and Fig. a transversesection, of part of a railway with my invention applied thereto, thenature ofsuch invention being duly defined in the claim hereinafterpresented. Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the gate, its sustainingpost,and the operative crank and connectinglink at the lower part of suchgate. Fig. 7 is an elevation of the connecting-rod a and the levers dhereinafter referred to, such gure not only showing the pivot bprojecting from the lever, but the slot c in such rod. Fig. 8 is a viewshowing the lever M and the parts cooperating therewith on an enlargedscale. Fig. 9 is a view on an enlarged scale of parts seen in Fig. 5.

My invention is to be applied to a railway at the crossing of it by acommon road, and is for the purpose not only of signaling to persons orvehicles on the road when a train may be approaching the crossing, butto close the gate preparatory to the train reaching the crossing, tokeep the gate closed while the train may be passing the crossing, andto'depress the signal and open the gate as the train may be leaving thecrossing.l

In the drawings, A A denote the track-rails of the railway, and B theroad-crossing. At the side of the latter are two posts or standards, Cand D, having two levers, E and F, fulcrumed to them near their upperends, the front or shorter lever, E, being the signal and the longerone, F, the gate, which latter should be of a length for it,v whenhorizontal, to extend across the roadway sufficiently to prevent thepassage of persons or vehicles across the railway while the signal maybe up anda car or train may be moving across the road- Way.

A shaft, a, extending through and having bearings in its two posts, Cand D, carries at its front end a crank, b, from whose wrist a link orbar, c, extends and is pivoted to the shorter arm of the signal E. Fixedat its middle on the shaft a, at its opposite end, is a short lever, d,to whose arms two connectingrods, e and f, are jointed, they beingextended to another such lever, g, xed at its middle on a shaft, h,extending across and below the railway-track, and suitably supported soas to be capable of being turned.

Projecting from the shaft h is a crank, L', to whose wrist is jointed apedal, I, formed as shown, fulcrumed to and arranged aside of a rail ofthe track. Between the said pedal I and the road-crossing there isanother such pedal, K, that is also fnlcrumed to the trackrail andapplied to the wrist of another crank, k, projecting from a shaft, l,that goes across and under the railway-track. There is fixed at itsmiddle to such shaft Z, at its front end, a lever, m, from whose armsconnecting-rods n and o extend to another such lever, p, fixed at itsmiddle on another transverse shaft, q. This latter shaft goes throughthe gate post D. A crank, r, fixed on the shaft q, couples with theshorter arm of the gate F by means of a link, s, pivoted to both.

To the lower arm of thelever p there is fixed one end of a spiralspring,t,arranged as shown, which has its opposite end attached to apost underneath the roadway. Furthermore,there extends from the lowerarm of the lever m a connecting bar or rod, u, which is pivoted to theupper arm of the lever d, the pivot b being extended through aslot, c,inthe connectingrod, as shown in Fig. 7.

A third pedal, L, arranged within the railway-track and close to onerail at the roadcrossing, is supported on the wrists of two cranks, cand w, one of which is pivoted to a post, x, and the other to the shaftq.

On the opposite side ot' thetrack-rail, at the road-crossing, therel isfulcrnmed a lever, M, Whose longer arm projects above the track, and isinclined to the tread of the rail.' A spring, 1, is fixed to the shorterarm of such lever, and operates to pull it down. rIhe said arm has ahook, z, to engage with a toothed sector, a', fixed on the shaft q.

In approaching the road-crossing arailwaytrain will successively runover and depress the pedals I and K. On the first one being forced downthe signal will be raised from an inclined to a horizontal position, andon the normal or inclined positions; but such, however, will not takeplace so long as the train second one being depressed, the gate will bethe toothed sector may be out of engagement moved down across theroadway, and will be held in its horizontal position by the hook of ithe lever M catching into the toothed sector a, which will be moved byand with its shaft while the gate is being depressed.

On depression of the second pedal the signal will be depressed into aninclined position, and the rst pedal will be raised to its normalposition above the track-rail, this being effected by the draft of theconnecting-rod u on the lever d, so as to move such lever and cause itto turn its shaft a.

Simultaneously with the depression of the gate thethird pedal,L,wil1 bemoved down below the tread of the rail, so as to be out of the way ofthe iianges of the wheels of the train as it may be advancing to act onthe lever M. On the iirst car of the train reachingand passing over andforcing down the longer arm of the said lever the shorter arm of thelever will be forced upward, so as to disengage its hook z from thetoothed sector a. When this takesplace, the spiral spring t,which hadpreviously been extended by the lever p,to which it is attached, will befree to contract, and by its inherent elasticity will do so, and will opcrate in a manner to cause the gate and the second and third pedals tobe raised to their may be running across'thecrossinggfor though with thehook ofthe lever M the spring will not be free to operate to' move thegate and first and second pedals so long as the wheels of the train maybe running over the third pedal, which, being kept by the wheels fromrising upward, will cause the gate to be kept in its horizontal positionuntil the train may haveentirelypassedthesaidthird pedal,which, havingtaken place, the spring will be free to cause the rise of the gate andthe second pedal.

I claim- The combination, with the railway-track A A, the lever-signalE, and gate F, of the three pedals I, K, and L, the spiral springs y andt, the hooked lever M, its toothed sector a', and mechanism,substantially as described, connecting such pedals, signal, and gate,such mechanism consisting of the shaft a, h, l, and q, cranks b, i, k,r, e, andw, connecting-rods c, e, f, n, o. and u, link s, and the leversd, m, and p, all being arranged with a road-crossing and to operateessentially and for' the purposes as set forth.

JOHN HORROCKS CLAYTON.

XVitnesses: i

R. H. EDDY, E. B. PRATT.

